Ex-FBI lawyer: Officials were 'quite worried' Comey appeared to be blackmailing Trump with dossier

Former FBI general counsel James Baker said this week that he and other officials were "quite worried" that former FBI Director James Comey appeared to be blackmailing then President-elect Trump during a 2017 meeting regarding salacious allegations found in the Steele dossier.
On the latest episode of the Yahoo News podcast "Skullduggery" published Tuesday, Baker said he and others were so concerned about Comey briefing Trump on January 6, 2017 on Russia's interference in the election as well as the controversial dossier that "analogies" were made to J. Edgar Hoover, the former FBI director who famously abused his power to blackmail individuals.
"We were quite worried about the Hoover analogies, and we were determined not to have such a disaster happen on our watch,” Baker said, hoping to convey to the incoming president that they did not want to continue the "legacy" of Hoover's blackmailing.
Baker did not recall the moment he first heard about the Steele dossier but remembered the bureau taking it "seriously" and said that they were "obligated to deal with it" and determine whether or not anything about it was true, but insisted they didn't accept it "as gospel." He did, however, believe Trump had to be briefed on the dossier because it was "about to be disclosed to the press."
The former top FBI lawyer explained why he clashed with Comey over whether to tell Trump that he wasn't the subject of the Russia investigation. According to Baker, he argued that the then President-elect's activities "fell into the category" of being a subject and he didn't think it was "accurate" to say otherwise. By contrast, Comey repeatedly told Trump that the president was not under investigation before his dismissal in May 2017.
Nonetheless, Baker said he supported any investigation that is looking into the origins of the Russia probe.
“I welcome scrutiny,” Baker said. “I plan to fully cooperate with the department to help them figure out what happened. Because I believe what happened was lawful, at least based on every piece of information that I have.”

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Sean Hannity: Anti-Trump 'mob' can't let go of 'dead and buried' Russia 'conspiracy theories'

Sean Hannity said Tuesday night in his Opening Monologue that members of the "anti-Trump mob" cannot let go of their "conspiracy theories" about Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation, even though allegations of President Trump colluding with Russia have been "dead and buried."
"The Russian hoax is now in the rearview mirror, Mueller['s investigation] is over," he said on "Hannity." "Anything you hear going forward - that is only noise."
Hannity said that the political left cannot "let it go."
"Their conspiracies about Russia [are] not even on life support at this time. It's dead, it's buried, and it's not coming back," he said.
Hannity pointed to former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who said in a recent CNN segment that "we're kind of losing sight of what was the cause of all this - the predicate for this [probe] - the Russians."
"I wish people paid more attention to Volume I [of the Mueller report]," Clapper said.
Hannity said Republicans including House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes, R-Calif., have been warning about Russia "for years."
He criticized former President Obama for a conversation he had with Russia's then-President Dmitry Medvedev, in which he spoke about "more flexibility" following his next presidential election.
"It was then-President Obama - he was laughing it off: 'Tell Vladimir [Putin] I have more flexibility after the election'," Hannity recalled.
Hannity said that, in addition, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., "doesn't seem to care about government leaking or abuse of power."
He said the Democrat has been on an "all-consuming mission to smear" President Trump and was "desperately trying to" have Mueller appear before Congress.
Hannity also criticized former Vice President Joe Biden, the frontrunner among Democrats hoping to take the White House in 2020, over a reaction he had to a woman at a New Hampshire rally.
The woman called Trump "an illegitimate president in my mind" and voiced hope that she would not be "stuck for six more years of this guy."
"Would you be my vice presidential candidate?" Biden joked in response.

As Trump takes heat on China, Pelosi plans talk with US trade rep

Pelosi and the Democrats are constantly trying to undermine the President.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is reportedly scheduled to meet with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Wednesday, a day after President Trump received harsh criticism from fellow Republicans who claim a trade war with China would drastically hurt farmers in Middle America.
Pelosi and Lighthizer are set to discuss the president’s new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, but the topic of the U.S. and China's tariff battle will likely come up in the conversation, two Democratic sources first told Politico.
“I wish him success in the negotiation,” Pelosi told reporters Monday, referring to Trump’s tactics with China. “But as I say, we have to use our leverage without antagonizing those who are on our side on this.”
Pelosi refused to consider the USMCA, the successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement, until Democrat demands are satisfied, including the addition of enforcement measures, Politico reported. (USMCA stands for United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.)
Lighthizer reportedly agreed to the meeting to appease House Democrats, but the administration has refused to reopen negotiations with its neighbors to the north and south. Several Senate Republicans have also refused to sign the trade deal until Trump removes steel and aluminum tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
The president faces growing opposition on both sides in Congress after the U.S. began increasing tariffs from 10 percent to 25 percent on $200 billion in Chinese goods last week. China retaliated by increasing tariffs on $60 billion in U.S. goods, and the stock market suffered its worst one-day performance in months Monday.
The White House is seemingly losing its grasp on Congress regarding trade, as several GOP senators spoke out against the president on Tuesday regarding his controversial agenda.
“I’m not sure if you talk to him face to face, he hears everything you say,” said Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, regarding the president’s failed negotiation with China last week, according to the Washington Post.
Republican senators from the Farm Belt are fielding calls from angry constituents who say farmers are getting caught in the crossfire between the U.S. and China, the Post reported.
“Ultimately, nobody wins a trade war unless there is an agreement at the end, after which tariffs go away,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
Soybean farmers, pork producers and a growing number of other agricultural interests, including cherry producers, corn growers and lobstermen, have complained of hurting profit margins as a result of the president’s trade dealings with China.
“Hopefully China will do us the honor of continuing to buy our great farm product, the best, but if not your Country will be making up the difference based on a very high China buy,” Trump said during an early morning tweetstorm Tuesday in an attempt to reassure the public.  “This money will come from the massive Tariffs being paid to the United States for allowing China, and others, to do business with us.”
Meanwhile, Senate Republicans are looking for ways to provide farmers with a taxpayer bailout should the tariffs impose a critical effect on the U.S. agricultural industry before President’s Trump’s scheduled meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping in Japan next month, the Post reported.
Pelosi has the power to determine the fate of Trump’s trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, and could capitalize on growing congressional discontent with the president by pushing the vote past its summer deadline until the heat of 2020 debate.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report. 

Treatment of Sarah Sanders still sparks hate mail, Red Hen co-owner admits year after Va. restaurant incident

Nearly a year after kicking White House press secretary Sarah Sanders out of a Virginia restaurant, the co-owner of the business -- who famously claimed she had "certain standards" to uphold -- says she has endured months of criticism and harassment as a result.
“The blowback was swift and aggressive," Stephanie Wilkinson, co-owner of the Red Hen in Lexington, writes in the Washington Post. "Within 24 hours, the restaurant’s phone line was hacked, my staff and I were doxxed, and threats to our lives, families and property were pouring in through every available channel.
“Protesters colonized the streets around the restaurant,” Wilkinson adds. She soon found herself stepping down as executive director of a local business group.
Wilkinson says she still receives hate mail over the June 2018 incident, in which she requested that Sanders and her party leave, but adds that the restaurant also has received support, including “thousands of dollars in donations in our honor to our local food pantry, our domestic violence shelter and first responders.”
The controversial treatment of Sanders and her fellow diners was part of a wave of public outbursts by liberal protesters directed at either prominent Republicans in Congress or members of President Trump's administration, in response to the administration's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy, which has since been rescinded.
Other targets who were harassed at restaurants last year included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas; and former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Such demonstrations were egged on by Democrats such as U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who said at a public rally: “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere."
Other Democrats, such as then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., distanced themselves from the protests, calling for messages of “unity” instead.
Wikinson’s actions against Sanders were widely condemned by Trump supporters. Some bombarded the Red Hen’s Facebook and Yelp pages with one-star reviews and called for boycotts. Many pointed out that liberals don’t face the same level of backlash.
Sanders' father, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, blasted what he described as the restaurant’s “bigotry.”
"Bigotry. On the menu at Red Hen Restaurant in Lexington VA. Or you can ask for the 'Hate Plate'. And appetizers are 'small plates for small minds,' he tweeted.
President Trump also weighed in, mocking the restaurant for “its filthy canopies, doors and windows (badly needs a paint job) rather than refusing to serve a fine person like Sarah Huckabee Sanders.”
According to reports, Sanders responded to Wilkinson’s request by saying, “That’s fine. I’ll go,” and vacated the restaurant with the rest of her party. She later recounted the incident online, telling Twitter that she left “politely” and will continue to treat people who disagree with her respectfully.
“Her actions say far more about her than about me,” Sanders wrote of Wilkinson. “I always do my best to treat people, including those I disagree with, respectfully and will continue to do so.”

Jim Jordan says AG Barr ‘serious’ about uncovering origins of Russia probe

Attorney General William Barr fully intends to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation and find out why federal authorities conducted surveillance on the Trump campaign, House Judiciary Committee member Jim Jordan told Fox News on Tuesday evening.
“I think this is Bill Barr doing what he said (he would do)," Jordan, an Ohio Republican, said during a panel discussion on "The Ingraham Angle." "Remember when he was in front of the Senate Finance Committee four weeks ago? (Barr) said he was serious about putting a team to get to the bottom of this."
Jordan's comments came in response to remarks on MSNBC earlier in the evening by former CIA Director John Brennan, who insisted that surveillance of the Trump campaign went through a “rigorous due process” and was approved by the FISA court. Any efforts by Republicans to portray the surveillance as a “deep state” operation are a misrepresentation, Brennan said.
But the only misrepresentation, Jordan said, is that investigators failed to tell the FISA court who paid for the anti-Trump Steele dossier.
That controversial dossier, which the FBI used to obtain a warrant from the court under the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, was written by British ex-spy Christopher Steele, and funded by the opposition research firm Fusion GPS. It was used by Democrats and multiple media outlets as fodder to allege that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia during the 2016 presidential election.
Meanwhile, Barr has appointed John Durham, a U.S. attorney in Connecticut, to examine the origins of the Russian investigation and determine if intelligence-collection efforts targeting the Trump campaign were “lawful and appropriate,” a person familiar with the matter told Fox News.
When asked to give his take on other networks dismissing the effort as a conservative “fantasyland,” Jordan said the effort should be taken seriously.
During the recent Senate Finance Committee hearing, Barr used two terms that should “scare” every single American, Jordan said. The terms were “unauthorized surveillance” and “political surveillance."

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